GUEST POST // All Nonprofits Should Know about Cellar Angels!
Hi, there! I’m excited to introduce Cellar Angels to you today! If you’re looking for a unique major donor gift, a mid-level donor wine-tasting experience, or a creative way to gather your donors all over the United States, you’ll want to visit their website today. Enjoy learning about this amazing company! - Sherry
Below Article By Denise Cody of Cellar Angels
About Cellar Angels
With lean and mean roots, Cellar Angels opened its proverbial doors with all the drama and vigor of a sapling grapevine pushing through terra firma. They began with no professional money, relying heavily on a bootstrap model of raising start-up funds through the support of friends, family, and fellow wine enthusiasts. Despite the harrowing maze of paperwork, countless hours spent with Illinois and California-based legal experts, and a hysterically simple, yet pivotal call with California Alcohol Beverage Control, their time spent in launch-mode was not for naught. Throughout, they were given the life-shaping gift of spending time focused on their truest passion: traveling through Northern California’s Napa and Sonoma counties looking for vintners’ treasures.
And treasures they found! After all, after breaking through rocky soil and pushing past arid clay, grape vines can thrive, and produce some of the world’s sweetest, most versatile fruit. And that sweetness and abundance is the fortune they found in launching Cellar Angels. Their success is attributed to three equally necessary ingredients: 1) a 20-year history of wine country relationship building, 2) an eagerness to provide a channel for wine artisans to share their craft with enthusiasts living outside of Napa and Sonoma, and 3) and perhaps the most important, the taste-making customers who yearn to support small-batch producers.
Wine embodies togetherness. It is the liquid spirit of community, of fraternity, of a tie that binds. You open a bottle to share with friends, and discover the versatility of an ancient and much-loved fruit, the unique personality of the craftsman that turn grapes to wine, and the history that extends far into the annals of cuisine and culture.
In Napa alone, there are 1,000 unique wine producers. A whopping 700 of them are limited production vintners—crafting wine you’ll never, ever find in your average wine shop—each with a different grape-laden, deliciously nuanced story to tell. And because they believe these distinctive producers are creating drinkable art that simply must be shared, Cellar Angels hand picks the most desired bottles from each of these wineries and makes them accessible to you through our Wine Club and Marketplace. Each of the vineyard-to-bottle selections you receive from Cellar Angels is shipped by the producer, themselves, directly to your door with love from wine country to you.
About the Founders
Denise Smith Cody, RN: Chief Operating Angel and Co-Founder
Compassionate care is a value that was organically, and perfectly, transferable for Denise when she launched Cellar Angels with her spouse, Martin Cody, CEO of Cellar Angels. As a 20 year nursing veteran and former Director of Nursing, Denise built a career on walking a fine balance between empathetic listening and swift, tactical action, which is why she is the perfect COO for Cellar Angels. Customers, wine producers, and partnering charitable organizations all benefit from Denise’s core strengths: workflow efficiency, meticulous organizational talents, and empowering leadership skills.
Denise completed Goldman Sachs’ 10K Small Businesses Program, and received the Corporate Woman of Achievement Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Her passion for wine and wine culture, coupled with her keen business instinct prove to be the backbone of Cellar Angels’ success. Knowing that navigating the wine business means marrying work and play, Denise enjoys time spent outdoors smelling the roses (and grapes), traveling, and perfecting pairing recipes in the kitchen.
Martin A. Cody: CEO, President, Co-Founder
A wine lover from way back, Martin Cody began his career in sales, rewarding work which shaped his understanding of the importance of rigorous, thoughtful customer service. Martin and his wife Denise, Chief Operating Angel of Cellar Angels, pivoted their love affair with wine into their first vino-venture; a retail brick and mortar wine shop in Chicago. The store became a much-loved, well trodden institution in the city. Still, in 2013, Martin and Denise sold it to chase their dream of providing the finest, least known, independent producers in the country a digital marketplace to share their talents and artistry with wine enthusiasts.
Having founded three companies prior to founding Cellar Angels, Martin has a visionary entrepreneurial spirit, and built an extensive Rolodex of national wine industry contacts that continue to support Cellar Angels’ growth. His passion for both the craft of winemaking, and his firm belief in the importance of developing and shaping small businesses, have allowed Cellar Angels to thrive and fill a much-needed void in the market.
